The Malays cannot depend on PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) to champion their cause, an Umno divisional leader said Wednesday.

Datuk Syed Ali Alhabshee, head of the Cheras Umno Division, said the Malays should give their total support to Umno.

“No Malay political party other than Umno has achieved an excellent record in administering the country based on the Federal Constitution,” he told Bernama.

Syed Ali said that in the complex political environment of today, Umno required a bold shift to erase the negative perception some people had of the party, the principal partner in the Barisan Nasional (BN).

“Umno should change its approach and methodology in keeping with the shift in thinking of young people who are getting more critical. This must be done because the young will determine the course of the country in the future,” he said.

Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil has emerged as the juju woman of UMNO politics. When, after a spell of opposition from within, she was finally sacked, there was both a sense of relief and anxiety. There was relief because her exit gave Prime Minister Najib a political space to push the election campaign. At the same time, optimism was laced with the fear that a resurgent Sharizat, unflinchingly committed to populist politics, would now give an impetus to revanchist tendencies that may come into play if the next general election produces a hung parliament.

The looming threat of political chaos is giving sleepless nights to all those who have a stake in UMNO’s future. It is one thing for the Centre what would happen if there is a government comprising six or more regional parties incapable of distinguishing the national from the local? Will it signal the end of the UMNO story?

Former minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said today she was not embarrassed by the failure of National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) helmed by her husband, Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail, in running the National Feedlot Centre (NFC).

During cross-examination in her defamation case against PKR’s Zuraidah Kamaruddin and Rafizi Ramli today, lawyer Ranjit Singh asked if Shahrizat felt embarrassed when reading the 2010 Auditor-General’s report, which stated NFCorp had not met their obligations owed to the government.

“No. They did not refer to my husband’s company. Counsel has got his facts wrong,” claimed Shahrizat.

Ranjit then read the Wanita UMNO chief excerpts from the report which stated NFCorp had not met the contract obligations for the project, but again, Shahrizat disputed the question.

“Yes, but let me clarify, the Auditor-General was only referring to the national feedlot project. He has no power to audit a private company,” she said.

Shahrizat also testified that she did not know how NFCorp made its income.

“I don’t know. It’s a business entity. I don’t know what their plans are,” she said.

When the defence lawyer asked who was charged with managing the feedlot programme, Shahrizat again said she did not know.

“That you will have to ask the agricultural minister,” she added.

NFCorp is owned by Mohamad Salleh and the couple’s three children. Their eldest son, Wan Shahinur Izmir, was also present today before the High Court judge Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

Shahrizat was represented by Datuk Seri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who was not in attendance this morning.

Rafizi had previously said that although he had repeatedly raised the question of conflict of interest in the award of the NFC project to Mohamad Salleh’s company when Shahrizat was still in the Cabinet, it was only the NFCorp chairman who was charged in court with wrongdoing.

On May 12, Mohamad Salleh pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court to two counts of criminal breach of trust involving RM49.7 million in NFCorp funds with regards to the purchase of two condominium units.

Rafizi, who has been at the forefront of the exposé on the scandal, was charged together with former Public Bank clerk Johari Mohamad under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (BAFIA) for disclosing banking documents related to NFCorp.

Both of them could be fined a maximum of RM3 million or be jailed up to three years if found guilty

More important is the well-tested argument that eyeballs needn’t translate into votes. They haven’t. History is replete with examples. Inscrutable voters hold the aces. The battle is getting interesting, and the next few months will expose the political colour of Malaysia Against Corruption. That decides half the battle law and disorder Contrary to the popular saying, the law is not an ass. At least law as practised in India is very definitely not an ass. .Any election is fought around the issues close to common people. Winnability is a factor that dictates the election manifesto, besides picking candidates. Acts of omission and commission, malfeasance and allegations of corruption are issues that are traded between and among parties.

Investigation papers submitted to the attorney-general by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) show that RM40 million a Sabah businessman was caught with in trying to smuggle into Malaysia from Hong Kong were political contributions to the state Umno and not for Chief Minister Musa Aman.

‘RM40mil smuggled cash not for Musa but for Sabah Umno Nazri has just said it is legal for UMNO Sabah to accept corrupt money. who would want to give UMNO RM40 million if UMNO is not in power in Sabah? This is ridiculous to the core, almost comical. If the money is really for UMNO, why do you need a Chinaman to carry the cash. Obviously whoever who was calling shot did not want UMNO to know too much. Surely a crony Chinaman would be easier to deal with. Can we see the common thread here: A deputy minister was caught with money banked into his personal account; he then claimed the money was for welfare work for his constituency. Now this, when caught, the money is for UMNO. Where is ROS, how come you fellows never check UMNO’s account? Where did the money come from, who contributed it? Come on, disclose it now The issue is who paid Rm40 million to Musa or UMNO and why?. If Michael Chia did what is the sourse of the fund? Why is he not charged for money laundering? If the money is for UMNO can the relevant authorities check how much such funds UMNO has received. The Rakyat needs answers.

The dissatisfaction runs deep. The states of Sabah and sarawak the systematic manner in which their locational advantages were negated by the steel and freight equalisation scheme which ran many states feel that centrally-funded measures such as the rural employment guarantee scheme was designed by people who don’t realise that one size just cannot fit

all Malaysia the poorer states are unhappy, , which has contributed so much to tourism, is miffed over having to do with a thoroughly inadequate airport. For the states, there are two concerns. First, there is mounting anger over the arbitrariness of centrally-funded schemes. Development projects, they feel, should be determined, designed and executed at the state level. Above all, they seek an end to the politically-inspired, discretionary use of national resources. Secondly, the states want the proportion of revenues disbursed by the Finance Commission (which are non-discretionary ) to be considerably enlarged, if necessary by whittling down the Planning Commission’s role. In short, the states are pressing for a drastic revision of the federal relationship.Undertaking the shift from a centralised system to a more federal system necessitates action at the Centre. There is a wide-open political space for different parties (even those which are politically antagonistic) to agree to a common minimum programme of federal restructuring that will bind any formation that assumes charge after the next poll. If the Centre proves fragile, it would be prudent to put the onus of progress on the states by giving them a greater stake.’The moon creatures never come out when there is any unfavorable report on any UMNO devil but would quickly wriggle out from all the craters on the moon surface the moment the news unfavorably touch on Musa. Ah, Musa must have a team of these creatures to defend himself from the rare few sources like Malaysiakini who dare to report as is where is without fear or favor. They are smart enough to know when to lay low when the news are stacked miles high against their hero but quickly pop their miserably heads above ground level if they see even the slimiest of chance to defend Sabah biggest devil… just to protect their source of ‘nourishments’… never mind by hook or by crook!Of course, Musa is innocent, just as Saint Ling Liong Sick was incapable of cheating the cabinet in Putrajaya. After all, even an unrepentant sinner would not be able to cheat a stick of furniture. But could we ask where the money came from? It certainly could not have been from the bottom of Victoria Harbour or the swamp in Mong Kok.We have a PM who is also the Finance Minister, overseeing institutions like BNM who enforces anti-money laundering and the exchange control mechanisms, and who is also the President of UMNO. Hence the Finance Minister is turning all the purportedly stringent rules of BNM on their heads. Truly, I’m at lost of what to say further..oh, except this – reminds us very much of Mat Taib’s “I speak no English” defence when he smuggled money into Australia, no?No element of corruption? Smuggling RM40million cash n no law broken? That is Nazri’s law can commit murder in broad daylight with witnesses and can still get away with it. UMNO are above the law.in GE13 the people will decide Why is our legal system so overworked? Is it because we Indians are by nature a particularly litigious lot, who’ll take not just our neighbours but often our family members to court for the most trivial of reasons? That might well be the case. But if we were to take a look at many, if not the majority, of law suits currently clogging the bowels of our judicial system so that it shows all the symptoms of chronic constipation we might well discover that they have been filed by various organs of the state – MACC, tpolice, different tax authorities, etc – against individual citizens or private organisations.While some of these cases are indeed of a serious nature – involving large-scale fraud, or violent crimes such as murder and rape – a lot of them are at all levels and created what is probably the biggest legal logjam in the history of jurisprudence. Cases frequently drag on for years and decades, and sometimes go on even after many, if not most, of the contending parties have both literally and metaphorically given up the ghost and have departed the earth for a better place.by our so-called system of law and order.? Nazri beats all the others at bare-faced LYING! What’s the businessman doing lugging cash about on behalf of UMNO? What’s the MACC worth if Nazri simply wipes off their on-going ‘investigations’ by unilaterally declaring Musa innocent. This is indeed GANGSTERISM!

Pakatan Rakyat leaders expressed shock at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s decision to clear Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman of graft and money laundering allegations, saying that it raised more questions than it answered.

“RM40 million is a huge sum, where did Sabah Umno get so much money? Who in Sabah Umno received it? How were the funds raised, was it from the federal government or from the state government or from members’ contributions? We are dissatisfied with the explanation given and disappointed with the MACC for not probing deeper,” PKR MP for Batu Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Musa was given the all-clear after the MACC found that the more-than S$16 million (RM40 million) channeled to Musa allegedly through corrupt means was meant for Sabah Umno’s use.

This was announced by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz in a written reply to a question Tian had posed last week.

According to Nazri, the Attorney-General’s Chambers had shelved the matter after finding no element of corruption in the case, which had been raised by whistle blower site Sarawak Report earlier this year.

“The funds were actually contributions made to the Sabah Umno liaison body and not for the chief minister’s personal use,” said Nazri.

A-G again?

In June, Prime Minister Najib Razak had told Tian in a written reply that MACC had completed its probe and passed on the matter to the A-G for consideration.

Nazri’s statement today is bound to focus more attention on Gani Patail, the corruption-tainted Attorney-General who has been frequently accused of blocking attempts to bring Musa to justice.

There have been speculation that Musa and Gani are related, and despite public clamoring for Najib to sack Gani, who is also unpopular for a host of other high-level murky decisions, the PM has refused to do so.

Nazri said that Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) had also investigated the case but “took no further action”.

“On the matter filed in the Switzerland courts, it was a MACMA (Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act) application by the ICAC seeking a probe on the same case. The MACMA application has also been withdrawn for the same reason as stated above,” he said.

I was defamed – Musa

Sarawak Reporthad in an April report, backed by documents allegedly obtained from the ICAC, said that a Sabah lawyer was holding some US$30 million in a Swiss bank account for Musa.

The report claimed that a paper trail showed that millions in euros, US, Hong Kong and Singapore dollars had been channelled from several firms managed by Hong Kong-based timber trader Michael Chia to a number of British Virgin Island companies and subsequently to the Sabah lawyer’s Swiss account.

Musa has denied links with Chia, who was arrested and charged with money laundering after attempting to smuggle S$16 million (RM40 million) back to Malaysia in 2008.

According to media reports, Chia had at the time allegedly told the Hong Kong authorities that the money belonged to Musa.

“I deny all these allegations. I wish to put it on record once again that I have no business association whatsoever with an individual named Michael Chia,” the Malaysian Insider reported Musa as saying.

Musa also accused Sarawak Report of defaming him, claiming the graft allegations were likely part of a conspiracy by his enemies who wanted to topple Sabah BN and grab power.

Talk about sweet revenge. News that Prime Minister Najib Razak had met up with U.S. billionaire George Soros raised a hoot of laughter with delighted Malaysian activists and opposition leaders, who had suffered relentless attacks by the government-controlled press over the past weeks for receiving funds from Soros-linked foundations.

Soros is the number 1 enemy of Najib’s Umno party and his predecessor, former premier Mahathir Mohamad. Using the government-controlled mainstream media, Mahathir had led a campaign that opposition leaders said was aimed at scaring the conservative Malay electorate back into the Umno fold by using Soro’s Jewish origins as a bogeyman.

It is also believed that Soros was a convenient scapegoat seized on by Umno strategists to pressure Malaysian NGO SUARAM into slowing its corruption trial in Paris against French naval giant DCNS, which has been accused of paying at least 114 million euros in illegal kickbacks to Najib and Umno for ordering 2 second-hand Scorpene submarines.

They were responding to a news report from Malaysiakini that said Najib met Soros on Sept 27, 2010.

“It is believed that at least one other top Umno leader was present at the get-together. Najib, who became prime minister in 2009, made his maiden speech at the UN General Assembly in New York on the same day he met with the billionaire financier,” wrote the news portal.

Time to ‘balik kampung’ Dr M

So far, no one has asked whether Najib had ‘sounded’ Soros for any funding or FDI. The US tycoon is known for several charitable foundations that support pro-democracy causes.

But whether Najib did so is not the crux of the issue. Critics of his government lament his party’s habitual use of gutter politicking to persecute rivals.

Attracting the greatest odium is Mahathir’s overt hypocrisy in attacking Soros, with whom he crossed swords during the 1998 Asian financial crisis.

Then, Mahathir had accused Soros of causing Malaysia’s economic downfall. But it later became evident that it was his encouragement given to former central Bank Negara treasury chief Nor Mohmad Yakcop to gamble in the international markets that really weakened Malaysia’s economic fundamentals, attracting big-time traders to attack its currency.

Nor Mohamad, who is now a Minister in Najib’s Cabinet, had allegedly lost RM30billion. But Mahathir has refused to admit or even comment on this.

“My view of Soros is that he is still a rogue currency trader and he compounds this evil by using the money to put his kind of people to rule the countries targeted by him. And Malaysia obviously is one of his targets,” Mahathir wrote in a recent op-ed published in the New Straits Times.